Wednesday, June 4, 2014

Competition: Amazon is not "unrivaled" edition

Amazon’s power over the publishing and bookselling industries is unrivaled in the modern era. . . .

Amazon has been discouraging customers from buying titles from Hachette, the fourth-largest publisher by market share. Late Thursday, it escalated the dispute by making it impossible to order Hachette titles being issued this summer and fall.

Amazon finally seems to be loosening its grip after weeks of choking off titles from publisher Hachette in a fight over e-book prices. . . .

Other retailers, including Walmart, Target and Barnes & Noble, have seized the standoff as an opportunity to one-up Amazon. Hachette's spokeswoman said each of the companies approached the publisher over the last few weeks about offering special deals on its books. Walmart, for example, slashed 40 percent off up to 400 Hachette titles and advertised faster shipping on the books.